250 Records of the Indian Museum. [Vol.. VIII^ 



Barbus sarana (H. B.)- 



Dibrugarh. 



Barbus sophorc (H. B.). 



From the stream below Balek. 



There are ten rows of scales in front of the dorsal fin instead 

 of nine. Colour — reddish brown. 



Barbus spilopholus, McClell. 

 (PI. viii, figs, I, la, lb.) 



The body is deep and strongly compressed, its greatest depth, 

 at the origin of the dorsal fin, is contained three and one-third 

 times in the total length, the length of the head is a little over 

 three and a half times. The snout is rounded, its length is con- 

 tained two and one-fourth times in that of the head. The diameter 

 of the eye is contained five times and the interorbital width two 

 and a half times in the length of the head. The mouth is small and 

 anterior. There are two barbels on each side, the anterior one 

 and one-third times the diameter of the eye and the posterior one 

 and a half times ; the distance between them measures one and 

 one-third times the diameter of the eye. Dorsal III 8, equidistant 

 from the end of the snout and the root of the caudal ; the last undi- 

 vided spine is strongly denticulated and the longest ray is two-thirds 

 the length of the head. In front of the dorsal there are sixteen 

 scales. Anal III 6. The posterior four rays are nearly equally 

 elongated, they almost reach the root of the caudal and are one 

 and one-third times the length of the anterior shorter rays. The 

 caudal peduncle is nearly twice as long as deep. There are 46 

 scales in the lateral line, 6 between the lateral line and the ventral fin, 

 ~ in the transverse line and 12 round the caudal peduncle. 



■Colour in life, as noted by Mr. Kemp " general colour greyish, 

 silvery below. Anal and posterior part of dorsal tinged with pink, 

 caudal fin also tinged with pink, slightly bluish at extreme end, 

 ventral side also pink." The base of each scale is deeply marked 

 with black, giving the characteristic spotted appearance. 



One specimen, 248 mm, in length with caudal, obtained at 

 Kobo by dynamiting a pool in the Brahmaputra river. 



This species of McClelland was merged somewhat unfairly in 

 the synonymy of Barbus chagunio (H. B.) by Day; probably he 

 was misled by a casual remark in the descriptive lettering of plate 

 xxxix of McClelland 's Indian Cyprinidae. McClelland corrected 

 this mistake about ten years later in Cal. Jour. Nat. Hist., vol. v, 

 p. 280. Moreover, Giinther in the Zoological Record for 1869 and 

 subsequently in Proc. Zool. Soc. of 1872, p. 875, demonstrated the 

 absurdity of the attempt to identify B. chagunio (H. B.) with an 

 unpublished manuscript drawing of Hamilton Buchanan marked 

 B. kunta. After this Day was compelled in a manner to admit 

 the independent existence of Barbus spilopliolus , but relegated it in 



